Online CPR Certification Blog

Date: April 18th, 2014

Very few patients who receive CPR after or during surgery do get to survive. In figures, only 1 out of 5 makes it. According to Julie Sosa, MD at Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues, the risk of death rose and as the number of co morbidities increased.

75% of patients who received CPR ended up with complications such as Sepsis. This occurred either during or after the CPR administration. These situations are preventable according to Dr. Julie, who says that quick and timely response can prevent some of these incidences and subsequently reduce mortality.

Henry Wang, MD and Vice chairman of research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham emergency department, states that there is need for physicians to get enlightened on such unpleasant events.

He added that vigilance is an important factor when analyzing patients, especially those suspected of suffering from compound comorbidities or with a variety of other complications after surgery. He was saying this in an interview that he did with Medpage Today.

Making a step in the right direction

The results are actually comforting according to Dr. Henry Wang. He reaffirms his stand by saying that the rates at which the incidences are occurring are no higher than the rate at which reports are being made. The mortality rate also appears to be a little lower than expected.

The study contained data from 250 hospitals. All the selected hospitals partake in the ACS-NSQIP (American College of Surgeons – National Surgical Quality Improvement Program). This was from the year 2005 to 2012
Examinations show that 49.8% of the events occurred 5 days after the surgery while 85.9% occurred immediately after the procedure. In general, 19.2% survived and were discharged while 71.6% died. Only 9.2% remained alive thought they were still admitted in the hospital.

Complications and factors contributing to them

It was noted that 77.6% of patients who received CPR had some form of complications. 75% of these cases occurred on or after the day the CPR was administered. Some of the common complications recorded included renal impairment, ventilator dependence, bleeding and septicemia.

Some of the factors that were independently related with the poor survival rates included things such as strewn cancer, renal injury, postoperative arrest, old age and preoperative sepsis. According to researchers, the findings aren’t that conclusive considering that they are sourced from an administrative database. They stated that the results could be limited by the fact there could be a few miscalculations thus restricting that data’s ability to establish an effect and cause.

There is a slight contribution made by the study as it highlights the risk factors, ability to improve the system and outcomes. Dr Michael Zenilman, MD, of Suburban Hospital/John Hopkins Medicine, who said this also added that the study confirmed that CPR administration in surgical patients was rare but very near fatal when required. He claimed that the incidences can be reduced if there was aggressive treatment, prevention and recognition of postoperative complication.